Two Interviews on Competitive Intelligence – Richard Horowitz and Cynthia Cheng Correia
Carnegie Council Competitive Ethics Just Business
July 3, 2012
JULIA TAYLOR KENNEDY: Welcome to Just Business. I'm Julia Taylor Kennedy.
Thomas Jefferson once said, “I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man.”
One field that really illustrates the distinction we all draw in our professional lives between ethics and law is competitive intelligence. Today on the show I'll talk to two competitive intelligence specialists to unpack the legal and ethical lines they draw each day.
First, a primer on competitive intelligence, known as CI for short. When the renowned Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter broke types of business competition into five categories in the 1970s, he established his legacy. Nearly every first-year MBA student now must internalize Porter's five forces. They are competitive threats, like substitute products, long-time industry rivals, and others.
Porter's forces also spawned a new industry, competitive intelligence. It's a service that some companies develop internally. Others hire a consulting firm. The main goal is to keep tabs on the competition and to project what competitive threats lie ahead.
This is a vital resource, but it's also one that businesses don't like to talk about because it seems kind of shadowy.
